Cambridge is founded.

Originally Newtowne, the town is established by followers of Rev. Thomas Hooker when a site near today’s Harvard Square is chosen on which to build a fort within which streets are laid out. Houses are built the following spring and Hooker arrives in 1633. The town assumes its current name and is incorporated in 1636. By 1644, it includes todays’ Brighton, Newton, Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, and Billerica. Cambridge becomes a city in 1846.